Mixed Doubles

Just tactical. Normally a pair has a better chance to win the rally when the lady serves: the man serves from farther back, making the serve slightly easier to attack; the man is also under a lot of pressure when serving, with shallow flicks/drives to his backhand being a particular threat.

In club play, I think "ladies first" often becomes part of the etiquette, but it's not in the rules.

Interesting idea. I'm not sure about this one; there are two competing principles:

• The lady's serve should be better.
• The lady's serve return should be better, because the man can hit down from the back.

So having the lady receive first is better, but having her serve first is also better. You can't have both!

It would be interesting to see the trend in world-class matches. What do they do? My feeling is that they tend to have both ladies starting on the right.

 

I've seen the receiving side having the lady on the left. The idea being, I assume, that when the service changes over, the lady serves first.

I don't think the receiving matters so much. In fact, it is better to let the man receive. Notice that the man stands right behind the service line to pressure the server, while the lady stands a bit back to cover the flick serve.

 

Good point. In both cases -- man receiving a low serve or woman receiving a flick serve -- the receiving side has some difficulty adopting their ideal formation.

Whereas the lady's low serve should always be better, in terms of achieving an ideal attacking position (lady at front, man at back).

Therefore I think it makes the best sense for the man to receive first (so the woman will serve first).

 

we play with new rules but still follow the good old etiquette, ladies to serve/receive first, simple really

 

Does the positioning have to be determined before the coin toss?